Emma's Secret
by Kat Lee formerly Pirate Turner
Summary: Emma has a secret.
1. Chapter 1

Title: "Emma's Secret"  
Author: Pirate Turner  
Dedicated To: My own beloved Precious, Cindy  
Rating: PG-13  
Summary: Emma has a secret.  
Warnings: Het  
Disclaimer: Sean "Banshee" Cassidy, Emma "White Queen" Frost, all other characters mentioned within, and Generation X are & TM Marvel comics, not the author, and are used without permission. Everything else is & TM the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.  
Author's Note: It took me 10 years to finish this after getting hung up after Chapter 4, but here, finally, it is!

**Chapter One**

She held her close that night and listened to her deep, contented purr. A gentle hand caressed her silky fur, stroking her back again and again, as their bodies kept one another warm. They snuggled closer as the night grew darker and colder, and both tried desperately to fall asleep. Her arms around the little figure were warm and gentle, wrapping her in the safe confines of a loving embrace. Her lips brushed gently against the top of her head, and Emma Frost quietly whispered. "This'll just be our secret. Always, just our secret. No one needs to know that the great Emma Frost is not truly the so-called Frost Queen."

Her only answer was the continuation of the purr and a very soft kneading in her side. Emma ignored the occasional sharp pains and let her eyes drift shut. "Good night, little one."

Just then, a loud banging came at the headmistress' door. "Em! I knae ye're in there! I can hear ye talkin' tae some one!"

Two pairs of eyes flew open, and before Emma could react, the door had been flung open and the lights suddenly flipped on. Emma blinked against the sudden brightness. "By the Saints! Em! I'm sorry!"

It only took two seconds before Emma Grace Frost was on her feet, her blue eyes glaring angrily at the befuddled and embarrassed Irish man. "How dare you intrude into my private chambers, Sean Cassidy! Especially at *this* time of the night!" the White Queen practically spat.

Sean's cheeks were already as red as fire. "I'm sorry, Em. I really am. But... But I heard ye talkin' tae someone!"

"Look around you, Sean! Do you see anyone in here?!" Emma demanded. Slowly, Sean shook his head from side to side, and she breathed a silent sigh of relief. "And even if I had had someone in here with me, Sean Cassidy, that does *not* give you the right to come barging into my *private* bedchambers like a bear!"

"But... But... But..." Sean stammered.

"OUT!" she shouted, her anger growing with each passing second. She raised an arm and pointed straight towards the door. "_OUT!_" she repeated in the same authoritative tone a dog trainer would have used on a disobedient pooch. "**_OUT!_**" she roared a third time before Sean finally managed to escape.

She let her arm drop to her side and stood there a moment, collecting herself and doing her best to calm her anger. She would deal with him in the morning. She then headed over to the doorway and peeked out, taking a quick scan of the estate. For as far as she could see, everything was empty, dark, and quiet, and Emma shut and locked her door, muttering under her breath the entire while. "That accursed Irish man! I swear, some day he is going to push me too far! I thought I had locked the door, any way!"

She turned back to her bed and stopped in her tracks. A slow smile spread over her lips, and a very soft laugh escaped her mouth. There, on a canopy bed of white satin sheets, a large, fluffy, white Persian queen had returned to stretch out to her full length and was kneading happily away, milking the sheets for all they were worth.

Still smiling, Emma shook her head slowly from side to side, turned off her light, and made her way through the darkness back to her bed. Once lying down, she reached out with gentle, motherly arms and brought the cat back up to her, snuggling down with her and pulling the covers up over them, "Just like I said, Precious. This will always be our little secret."

**To Be Continued . . . **


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

"Bumpkin," she called to her limo driver who also doubled as many other servants.

"Yes, ma'am?" the green man known only as Bumpkin replied, rushing eagerly to her side.

"I want you to take this plate up to my room," she ordered.

"But, Miss Frost," he objected, confusion clearly displaying across his facial features which made him seem older than he actually was, "I saw what you put on that plate! It's nothing but little pieces of what you just had to eat!"

Her blue eyes flashed with dangerous anger. "Do not question my orders, Bumpkin, or you may very well find yourself at the unemployment office!" Emma Frost snapped.

He knew immediately he had stepped out of line and gulped, stumbling back a step. "Yes, ma'am!" he immediately exclaimed, turning to leave.

"Wait. You'll need this." She extended her hand to him, and he took the offered key. "Return it to me immediately. Do not waste even a second," she commanded.

"Yes, ma'am!" he exclaimed, nodding hurriedly as he turned and literally raced from the room as if he had the hounds of Hell themselves nipping at his very heels.

* * *

His eyes darted quickly around his employer's bedroom as he entered the room, carrying the plate on one hand. He saw nothing out of the ordinary; indeed, everything appeared to be just as it always was. Setting the plate down on the dresser, he turned once more to survey his surroundings but could see no sign whatsoever of any one being there or anything having been disturbed in the slightest. He prayed Miss Frost wasn't finally going insane again as he shook his head and left the room, closing and locking the door behind him.

His footsteps sounded away down the hallway, and immediately a blur shot out from underneath the bed. She jumped gracefully up onto the dresser and immediately began to eat the remaining food. She knew not what it was, but it didn't matter. All that did matter was that the food was delicious and it was all hers.

**To Be Continued . . . **


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

The front door of Xavier's School For Gifted Children opened, and a tall woman dressed completely in white breezed through. "Em!" an Irish brogue called cheerily from the top of the staircase as he headed down toward her, a huge grin on its owner's face. "It's good tae have ye --" Sean Cassidy began to say only to have Emma race up the stairs and continue right pass him without ever even bothering to glance at him.

She was back before he could do much in the way of following her, her arms loaded with papers that were doubtlessly in need of grading, and Sean turned slowly, his eyebrows rising in surprise and his grin vanishing, as he watched her go without speaking so much as a word to him. "Em?" Though he followed her out of the school and across the campus, she never reacted to him, and he soon heard her door open and close.

Emma leaned across her door for a moment, taking a second to lock it behind her should that crazed Irish man decide to come blasting his way through again, before calling out in a hushed voice, "I'm home, sweetheart!"

Just outside her door, Sean's mouth dropped wide open in shock. He began to move his mouth as he tried to say something but then changed his mind and instead continued to eavesdrop.

A beautiful, white cat raced out from under Emma's bed, and Emma knelt to meet her pet. The cat ran straight into her mistress' arms, and Emma's gentle arms held her close. She pressed her face into her baby's soft fur and inhaled the cat's familiar, welcoming scent. "Oh, Precious," she breathed to the one being throughout the galaxy who she truly completely trusted, "it's so good to be home!"

Sean's eyes widened in shock as he heard Emma rain gentle kisses on what he thought to be a man and never even once began to think might be a cat. Fury filled him with each kiss he heard until finally he demanded, "Emma, what's goin' on?!"

Emma's ice blue eyes flashed at the sound of the sexy Irish brogue calling to her from the other side of her bedroom door. "Sean Cassidy, what are you doing?! Were you eavesdropping?!"

Sean ignored her questions as he demanded, "Di ye have a man in there? Ye knae it's against regulations tae have a man in yer room at this time o' the night!"

Inside the White Queen's bedroom, blue eyes exchanged a silent conversation with green eyes. It couldn't hurt, could it? "For students, Cassidy, not faculty! Besides, whether or not I have a man in my bedroom is my business alone! Why should you care, any way?"

For a moment, Sean was silent. He couldn't tell her the truth, so instead he returned, "Because it'd be settin' a bad example fer the students!"

"As if you were concerned about what kind of example Moira and you were setting for them a few months ago!" Emma snapped icily.

Sean's head fell. She would have to mention that, wouldn't she? "Em, I jest -- "

"It's _none_ of your business, Cassidy," Emma spat out, her eyes blazing even as she struggled to keep herself from laughing aloud. "Now leave us alone!"

"Us?" Sean repeated. "So there is -- !"

"I already told you, Cassidy, that whatever or whoever else is in this bedroom besides myself is absolutely none of your business! Now _remove_ yourself from my door, or _be removed_!"

Emma's lips pressed tightly together, and her blue eyes sparkled and danced as she listened to his English muttering and Gaelic cursing on the other side of the door. Sean stuffed his fists into his pockets and forced his feet to turn him around and carry him away. Sooner or later he _would_ get to the bottom of her recent strange behavior, but apparently that was not going to happen that night.

Emma waited until she was absolutely certain Sean was gone, and then she burst into laughter as she gently scratched her beloved Persian on her head. "You know, sweetheart, I think we're about to drive him crazy!" She then returned to stroking Precious' lovely, white fur and, every now and then, brushing her lips softly across the beautiful cat's head.

**To Be Continued . . . **


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

Three teenagers who appeared to the unknowing eye to be just normal, average young women of varying age, race, and height strolled through the mall, swinging their bags and chattering away, until one suddenly stopped. Her blue eyes widened, and her mouth dropped open in surprise. "Yo! Check it out -- Frostie's actually shopping at the _mall_!"

Monet looked up curiously, her almond eyes following her younger team mate's gaze. "Odd. I always thought she thought the mall to be beneath her."

"Are y'all kiddin'?" Paige asked, following their gaze where Emma stood, carefully surveying what looked to be a bunch of necklaces. "She practically lives at Victoria's Secret!"

"Yes, but that is through their catalogs, not through the mall."

Jubilee let her gum pop, then wondered aloud, "What's she checkin' out any way?"

The three teens watched as their headmistress picked up first one and then another of the necklaces, examining each one with a carefully scrutinizing eye and running her fingertips delicately along their surfaces. When she finally held one up to her neck, all three girls' mouths dropped open in pure shock. She wasn't checking out necklaces -- she was checking out _collars_!

Paige was the first to speak after a long while. "What in the world could she want with a collah?"

Monet shrugged, but Jubilee felt she knew the answer. "Look, Paige, trust me, ya don't wanna know."

"Why? What do ya think it is?"

Jubilee sighed and shook her head. "Why doesn't any one ever listen when somebody tells them they don't want to know something?"

"Because such a statement piques their curiosity, Jubilation. Now what is it? What do you think Miss Frost is planning on using the collar for?"

Jubilee turned her eyes away from both Emma and her friends. They roamed the mall -- the other shoppers, the stores, the ceiling, the floor, the potted plants, anywhere and anything other than her friends. She just couldn't face them as she answered, "Cassidy."

"WHAT?!" both girls shrieked simultaneously.

Jubilee could already feel her face going red. "Hey, I don't like the idea any more than you guys do, but trust me, people do some _really_ insane things in their bedrooms!"

"But . . . But Mistah Cassidy and Miss Frost aren't togethah!"

"Puh-leaze, Hayseed! Wake up already! Ya see the way they look at each other! They've got something goin' on; they just don't want _us_ to know it!"

"Jubilation, you are merely fifteen years old. How in the world could you possibly --?"

"Know what I know about what goes down in people's bedrooms?" Jubilee finished, cutting Monet off. "Look, M, you try livin' in a mansion with rabbits like Jean an' Scott an' Warren an' Betts, and then _you_ come and tell me you don't know anything about it."

Paige paled. "Ah don't think Ah want ta hear any more o' this!"

Monet glanced back up at the store where they had saw Emma just in time to see their headmistress turn and begin to walk out of the pet store, her purchase in hand. "Quick! Duck! If what Jubilee says is right, we don't want her to know we saw her!" The trio quickly dove into a nearby store but continued watching as Emma walked away, their eyes still wide in astonishment and disbelief at what they had just witnessed.

**To Be Continued . . . **


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

Squealing tires signaled the White Queen's arrival, and Sean looked up with hope lighting his emerald eyes. It was no coincidence that he had found himself walking by her quarters, even if he still denied it to himself. He ambled along, his hands thrust inside his pockets, whistling a merry tune as he watched her move from underneath veiled eyes.

Emma was a beauty unlike any other, and not just because she possessed one of the most powerful telepathic brains across the globe. Her beauty was that that made a man stop, stare, and catch his breath without ever realizing he had done so, but Sean knew all too well that that same glorious beauty that he had ached to see again for so long while she'd been gone on her business trip hid a cunning mind, a fierce temper, and a heart he feared she would always deny was truthfully full of love . . . love for their students, and for herself, but never for him though he longed for it to be otherwise.

He watched her walk, the way she held herself as she moved gracefully but purposefully over the grounds exuding strength and power while simultaneously emulating sheer beauty. She glanced at him as she passed but did not speak a word, and Sean barely held back the sigh that rose in his throat. She was mad. He could see her anger clearly in the flash of her blue eyes and was only glad that it could not possibly be directed at him for she'd not seen him in days and, therefore, he couldn't possibly have done anything to make her mad . . . could he?

He looked up as a flying form caught his attention, and he shook his head while calling out to his student. "I would nae advise approachin' her now 'bout tha' grade, Monet."

Monet landed lightly upon her feet next to her headmaster and looked at him with apprehension in her brown eyes. "She has arrived angered, sir?"

"Aye," Sean replied with a deep sigh. He turned his gaze to the distance and walked away, leaving Monet to stand alone, wondering about her headmasters.

* * *

The White Queen kept her posture rigid and her head held high until she slipped inside the confines of her own bedroom. She leaned against her door the moment she closed it and sighed. It had been a long, frustrating trip to Boston, and she was weary. One face was all she wanted to see, though she had taken a quick glance at the handsome vision that was her co-headmaster. She had felt the catch of her breath in her throat that had become so familiar whenever Sean was around but had hurried on, eager to get to her bedroom, pour her sorrows out, and relax.

Emma released her frustrations in one more sigh, then looked to the bed where she expected her sole confidante to be. No meow had greeted her, but Emma had felt assured that her Precious was only sleeping and had not yet awakened despite their door opening. The bed was empty, but she pushed her worries aside with the knowledge that Bumpkin was under very strict orders to not allow her beloved even one second more than necessary with any door or window open.

She crossed to the bed, calling out softly, "Precious, darling, Mommy's home." She touched the covers gently, shook them slightly, and then pushed them over across the bed as the icy fingers of fear began to coil around her heart. The bed was not only empty but was cold! She whirled, her fear building, and then screamed . . .

* * *

Emma's scream split the previously still air that had settled across the campus. Sean had been quickening his step as dark clouds had began to gather in the sky, but as Emma's scream caught at his heart, he turned and flew. He reached her door just as Monet lifted a hand to knock but did not slow. Instead, he kicked it open and hovered in the air. "Em, what's wrong?!"

The color had drained from her face, he noted as he set upon the floor, and her hands covered her mouth. Her eyes shimmered with an unnamed emotion he knew she'd never admit to. "Em?"

"Miss Frost, what is it?"

"Yo, Frostie!" Jubilee's voice came through the open door as she came skating. "What's up?"

"She -- She -- She's _gone_!" Emma cried, and despite herself, a tear fell.

The three around her stared at Emma, Monet's and Jubilee's jaws hanging slightly open. The students had never seen her cry, and Sean had only had the honor of holding her while she cried once before when their students had been taken. He recovered the fastest and quickly closed the distance that separated them. Taking her shoulders lightly in his hands, he looked into her eyes and asked softly, "Who's gone, Em? Tell us, luv, so we can help."

Desperation and fear clutched at Emma, and she missed his slip of the tongue. "She's gone! Precious is gone!"

"Precious?" the two girls repeated, their surprise growing.

"Who," Sean queried, fighting to keep his voice calm and steady but barely managing thus far, "is Precious?" A man could not be named Precious, he reasoned, nor could he really see a lass being named so.

"My . . . My baby -- "

Sean's mouth fell open; his eyes shot wide. His body turned limp, his hands dropping from her shoulders to swing back to his side. "Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Yer . . . " He could not say the word. How could Emma have a _child_?! How could she ever have been pregnant around them without their noticing?! How could his love know another man so well!?!

An anger greater than any he'd ever felt at any villain bubbled within him, churning, toiling, and fighting with a sorrow that left his insides feeling even more hollow than when he had lost Maeve. He recoiled from Emma, realizing that, though death had not claimed her, he had just as surely lost her. His head hung, but his heart hung far lower.

Their students had gone completely unnoticed by Sean as they had echoed Emma's words. "Your baby?!" He did not even see the startled wad of gum that had splattered across Jubilee's face.

"Yes, my baby!" Emma exclaimed, and then she realized what she had said, the admission that would cost her all their respect. In her next breath, Emma took stock of the situation. What did it matter if she lost their respect if her Precious, her only real friend and confidante ever, who had never asked anything from her but to be loved and cared for was gone?! She knew the answer as soon as the question hit her, and she blurted out, "My cat. I know it sounds ridiculous to you all," she continued at the shocked expressions of the other students who were just entering her quarters, "but she is my baby."

"That ain't ridiculous at all, ma'am," Paige blurted, though she did not know the story in its entirety. "Pets are members o' the family. Ya can love 'em just like a child. Ah know Ah did when Ah had mah Snookums."

"Snookums?" Jonothon repeated, casting a look at her, but before Paige could answer him, Angelo spoke up.

"But I thought you hated animals!"

"Yeah," Jubilee put in, "you forbid any of us from having one!"

As her students' voices buzzed all around her and fearsome images of what might have happened to her beloved Precious in her absence filled Emma's mind, she felt the world spinning around her. She was dropping through it all, and she knew not what to expect next when the absolute last thing she would have expected caught her ears and made her burn. As laughter erupted into the air, Emma whirled and slapped Sean.

**To Be Concluded . . . **


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

Sean silenced the moment Emma struck him, but though he rubbed his aching cheek with one hand, his other reached out and caught hers before she could strike him again. "I was nae laughin' at ye, Emma."

"He's dead," Jubes muttered to which the other teenagers all quickly nodded their agreement.

"Cassidy, do not _dare_ -- "

"Hush, lass, an' listen tae what I have tae say. About a day after ye left, Bumpkin was upset but would nae speak tae any one." The kids nodded, hearing his words and agreeing to his recollection, but then Sean continued with news that surprised and delighted all who heard it. "Th' next day, I was walkin' by yer place 'ere, an' I heard this pitiful mewin' . . . "

Forgetting everything else, Emma asked breathlessly, "Precious?" Hope lit her beautiful, blue eyes as he nodded. "Aye. She took up wit' me, Em. I took 'er in, hid 'er, did nae even tell th' kids 'bout 'er fer I knew when ye came up, if'n he found me wit' a pet, ye'd near skin me alive."

Emma's eyes searched his with a frantic desperateness. "She's okay?"

"Aye, luv," he breathed, "she's fine." Unable to resist the mixture of relief and happiness that chased the fear and sadness from her lovely face, Sean pulled her close and further shocked Emma by kissing her. He forced himself to keep the kiss light, then swept her up into his arms. "Now come an' greet yer baby." There was no humor in his voice as he spoke the words, only relief and happiness.

As the two flew away, Emma for once not voicing a single word of protest, Jubilee called after them, "But if you get to have a pet, so do we!"

"Yeah!" Paige eagerly exclaimed.

"Si."

"A cat would be nice," Monet spoke quietly, and Jono and Everett nodded in agreement.

They had walked outside after their teachers, each feeling a warmth in their heart at the sight of their headmaster carrying their headmistress and Emma, for once, neither complaining nor being cruel.

"It's about time," Paige breathed.

"Yeah," Jubilee said as the others again nodded in agreement. "Maybe they won't have much longer before they're puttin' that collar to use."

As the boys looked at them in surprise, the girls threw back their heads in thrilling laughter.

* * *

Sean did not set Emma down until they were inside his quarters, and there, upon the blankets on his bed, Emma saw her little one, peacefully kneading the blankets. Her Precious looked as calm and contented as though she had never heard Emma's scream, and as Emma rushed to her and took her in her arms, the look in the cat's eyes told her otherwise. She had known, Emma realized as the Persian's tail wrapped lovingly around her arm and she began a deep purr, exactly what she had been doing all along.

He had kissed her, Emma remembered, kissed her, melted her to her very core, and literally stolen her breath away -- none of which she would have ever dared to allow him to do if she had been in her right frame of mind, but Precious' disappearance had scared her far more than anything else ever had. She turned to face the man of her dreams now, the man who meant so much to her but the knowledge of which she had only ever shared with Precious, knowing that her beloved feline could never speak a word of her growing love for the remarkable Irish man to any one. "Sean?"

Though he would have loved to have heard her say the words that would mean everything to him if only she would utter them, he knew she had been through a great deal in the last few moments and feared that she might still lack the courage to say what he so longed to hear. "It's okay, Em," he spoke quietly, once more closing the physical distance that separated them, "ye din't have tae say it." He pressed a finger to her mouth to silence her, then replaced his finger with his lips.

This time, Sean let himself linger. Heat seared through them both from the light touch of his lips against her own, and then he deepened the kiss ever so slowly. She nearly whimpered against his mouth as she opened her own, admitting him permission, and he swept his tongue into her mouth. His arms circled around her waist and pulled her so close that the cat who both had claimed as their own barely had room to breathe between the pressure of their heated bodies.

His hands caressed her, one hand moving gradually up to her face where he stroked her with touches as light as a feather. Emma's eyes drifted shut, and the trust she showed in him thrilled him. His tongue thrust deeper into her mouth, boldening his exploration of her sweetness until a frustrated "Meow!" squealed out from between them.

Sean and Emma separated just enough to allow Precious room to squirm her way out of Emma's arms. She leapt from her, jumped back onto the bed, and turned around, her tail wrapping around her beautiful body, to glare at them. Both mutants easily read the expression that shone clearly in her emerald eyes: How _dare_ you!

"Like mother, like daughter," Sean chuckled.

Emma glanced at him, a wry grin teasing the corners of her mouth that was still warm from his embrace. "Indeed?"

"Aye," Sean replied with a wink as he wrapped his arms back around her slender waist and pulled her to him. She did not fight him, and his smile grew. Now that he had her, he was never letting her go!

"I suppose she does take after me," Emma relented with a slight shrug of her shoulders. "I do believe this entire encounter is her scheme."

"Oh, really now?"

"It must be," she replied in a hushed voice, her forehead pressing slightly against his as she drew as close to him as she could be without sharing the same skin, "for only she knew how I feel about you . . . "

Sean's heart skipped a beat, as it so oft did when this remarkable woman was near. "An' how is that?"

Emma draped her arms over Sean's shoulders and lightly clasped her hands behind his blonde head. "I love you, Sean Cassidy," she spoke and was about to speak her thanks that Precious had given her the courage, or what she would have called foolishness at one time, to admit that to him but Sean recaptured her lips before she could.

As they sealed their love with a fiery kiss that sent both soaring to heights of pleasure neither had ever known before, Sean could not help silently remarking that the adage he had spoken was indeed true. Both females were wondrous ladies in their own rights, and he could only hope and pray that he'd get to spend the rest of his life with them. He knew right then that only they would complete his life and that without either one, he would be miserable.

Emma rubbed against him much like Precious would have rubbed her head against his hand. She would never let him go, and together they would experience every happiness their world had to offer.

**The End**


End file.
